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Number of slots for RAM

I want to upgrade the RAM on a friends computer. I checked the spec for his computer on crucial.com and it tells me it can take a maximum of 1GB. Is it the proper procedure to divide the 1GB over a matched pair of slots with two 512 MB modules or can it be done with one 1 GB module?

If you checked it on crucial.com with their scanner tool it tells you how many slots what there is already and the maximum MB per slot you can put in. Also if it needs a matched pair it will tell you that as well. Then it will have recommendations of what to buy listed at the righthand side

Is the 1GB you mention the maximum the motherboard can take or is it that there is only room for 1GB more than is already in? (1GB doesn't seem to be much)

1 GB is the maximum the mother board can take. I know that it currently has 512 MB of RAM installed and that it has only 2 RAM slots so without opening the PC case I made the assumption that the current 512 MB was made up of two 256 MB modules. The reason I was asking the question in the first place is because I have a 1 GB module going spare which I wanted to install in the PC but wasn't sure if things would work the way they should if I were to install the 1 GB module in one slot and leave the other empty.

I would suggest checking what RAM is currently installed by removing it and noting down any and all numbers. Chances are the system is probably quite old so you best bet and cheapest option will be EBay to purchase the RAM neede.

Surely, the Crucial Site told you what was already installed and gave you a number of alternatives. That it certainly did when I last upgraded my PC.

The likelihood of your spare RAM Stick being suitable are slim, so be prepared for a PC that you get no POST Beep and failing to Boot-up. If you get there, just un-install the RAM Stick you have just installed and start again.

Although it appears that you can buy RAM, on eBay, cheaper than Crucial, based on the information they have given you. That information is not all you need to buy the correct Sticks. Bight the bullet and buy from them.

As RAM goes the speed of the slowest installed, plan to throw away what is already installed there and buy the maximum, and fastest, recommended.

Chronos the 2nd: From memory of this site the only complaints about Crucial we have had in all the years I've been visiting here have been sorted by return. However I feel sure that, at some point someone has been let down.

The main body of complaints come from folk copying the Specification, recommended by Crucial, and then buying off eBay

If you order, on their Web page, from the Computer that the RAM will be installed in, using the Code Number generated by that Computer. Their Warranty has always been honoured, to the best of my knowledge.

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